Composition Competition, Tours of Israel and California and More Set for Shuffle Concert's 2014-15 Season

Celebrating its fifth anniversary, New York-based chamber music ensemble SHUFFLE Concert has launched its first Composition Competition to take place during its upcoming 2014 - 2015 season. Open to national and international composers ages 18 and up, the competition is for works of 5 to 7 minutes in length in one of two categories: Original Compositions and Arrangements. New York City audiences will have the opportunity to hear the winning works, which will be premiered live in concert in early 2015.

Works may be written for any possible combination of at least 4 of the 6 instruments comprising the ensemble: clarinet, oboe, violin, cello, piano and soprano. No stranger to new works, SHUFFLE Concert has already commissioned more than 20 arrangements as well as two new works by composers Avner Dorman and Jonathan Keren. The ensemble, which has built a reputation in the classical music world for its creative programming juxtaposes works not only from different classical music eras but also from jazz, pop and Broadway. The ensemble's non-traditional instrument grouping allows for a wide variety of works, which range from solos to sextets. Deadline for submissions is August 15, 2014. (Please see sidebar for additional competition information).

The competition follows on the heels of the 2013 release of SHUFFLE's eponymous debut CD. In addition to a financial prize and a live performance, the winning works will be considered for inclusion in the ensemble's second recording.

The competition is just one part of SHUFFLE's upcoming season. Following summer engagements that include Pennsylvania's Buck Hill Skytop Music Festival and Canada's Ottawa Chamberfest, SHUFFLE Concert's 2014-2015 season features concerts on both coasts. Among the performances are concerts at Manhattan's West End Collegiate Church and the AFIPO Young Patrons Society Gala Concert at the World Trade Center, the Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society Series in New York, the Lyrica Chamber Music Series in New Jersey, and the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center in Houston, Texas. Of special note is an October 2014 7-concert tour in Israel, the group's fourth tour of the country. Following a successful tour of California this past April that included concerts in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Encitas and Foster City, the ensemble returns to the West Coast in March 2015 for performances at California's Lancaster Performing Arts Center, Pepperdine University's Center for the Arts and the Oshman Family JCC on the Taube Koret Campus in Palo Alto. (For further details on SHUFFLE's season, please visit www.shuffleconcert.com.)

An inspiring and energetic chamber music ensemble, SHUFFLE Concert changes the rules of performance as we know it. At each performance, the audience is invited to actively participate in the selection of works to be performed. Randomly selected audience members choose the works that will be played from a menu of over 30 works and 15 different styles, with works ranging from solos and duos, to trios, quartets, quintets and sextets. Genres vary from classical, baroque, and romantic, to Jazz, pop and Broadway. The result is a unique performance.

SHUFFLE's members are exceptionally accomplished chamber musicians and are graduates of such renowned music schools as Juilliard, New England Conservatory, Oberlin, Mannes and Bard College Conservatory. They have all individually won numerous prizes, and have performed extensively as soloists and collaborative musicians throughout the world.

Since its inception, SHUFFLE Concert has performed in a variety of concert settings throughout its home base in New York City, including the Duplex in the West Village, the Rose Studio at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall (which was broadcast on WWFM and WQXR), and The Greene Space. The ensemble has performed across the country, from Long Island to Gettysburg to Los Angeles, and across Israel.

This past October 2013, the ensemble released its eponymous first CD which features new works by Avner Dorman and Jonathan Keren as well as several original arrangements.